{{Short description|British sculptor (1881–1965)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}} {{Use British English|date=March 2012}} {{Infobox person | name = Mary Gillick | honorific_suffix = [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] | image = Mary Gillick n 1952 by unknown.jpg | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = 4 April, 1881 | birth_place = [[Nottingham]], England | death_date = 27 January, 1965 | death_place = [[London]], England | death_cause = | other_names = | known_for = | education = [[Nottingham Trent University, School of Art and Design|Nottingham School of Art]], [[Royal College of Art]] | employer = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} '''Mary Gaskell Gillick''' ({{nee}} Tutin; 1881 – 27 January 1965)<ref>[http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib4_1236871459 Mrs Mary Gaskell Gillick OBE in: Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851–1951, accessed 12 December 2013]</ref> was a sculptor and medallist, best known for her [[effigy]] of [[Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom|Elizabeth II]] used on coinage in the [[United Kingdom]] and elsewhere from 1953 to 1970. [[File:Effigy of Elizabeth II (by Mary Gillick).jpg|thumb|right|140px|Effigy of Elizabeth II by Mary Gillick]]
==Personal life== Born '''Mary Gaskell Tutin''' in [[Nottingham]], she was the eldest of three children born to Thomas Tutin and Elizabeth Gaskell ({{nee}} Ardern),<ref name=madrb/> who wed on 25 March 1880 in Knutsford, Cheshire.
She was educated at the [[Nottingham Trent University, School of Art and Design|Nottingham School of Art]] (1898–1902) and at the [[Royal College of Art]] (1902–1904), where she studied under the sculptor [[Édouard Lantéri]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Mary Gillick: Her Art in Your Pocket, exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute|url=https://www.henry-moore.org/whats-on/2017/09/20/mary-gillick-her-art-in-your-pocket|access-date=16 July 2020}}</ref>
After making her first exhibition at the [[Royal Academy]] in 1911, she designed several [[medal]]s to be used as awards, and several other, larger relief sculptures in [[Rock (geology)|stone]] and [[bronze]]{{citation needed|date=October 2022}} including the stone commemorative sculpture, Crosby Hall, Chelsea 1926<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Nottingham Woman Sculptor |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002186/19261224/010/0002 |newspaper=Vote |location=England |date=24 December 1926 |access-date=20 February 2024 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
In 1905, she married sculptor [[Ernest Gillick]].
==Honours== She was appointed OBE in the [[1953 Coronation Honours]].<ref name=madrb>{{Citation |last=Attwood |first=Philip |title=Gillick [née Tutin], Mary Gaskell (1881–1965), sculptor and medallist |date=2024-05-09 |work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-40892 |access-date=2024-11-06 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.40892 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
==Effigy of Elizabeth II==
In 1952, Gillick's effigy design was selected from a field of seventeen to be used on general-circulation coinage for the new Queen Elizabeth, first issued in 1953. Gillick worked on the portrait between March and October 1952, with one sitting and close supervision by the [[Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh|Duke of Edinburgh]].<ref name=":0" /> Gillick's design was notable for portraying the Queen uncrowned, and was the last to be used on the [[British coinage#Pre-decimal coinage|pre-decimal coinage]].
Gillick's die master had insufficient relief, and the striking was too weak. Facial features and the dress folds in the shoulder disappeared. The problem was solved by re-cutting the dies. This remastering was performed by [[Cecil Thomas (sculptor)|Cecil Thomas]], an experienced medallist who had already crafted overseas currencies featuring Elizabeth II, but who had initially been turned down for the British coinage in preference to Gillick.<ref>Thomas, Cecil Walter (1885–1976), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Sept 2004</ref>
A cameo of Gillick's effigy of the Queen has been used on [[List of United Kingdom commemorative stamps|British commemorative stamps]] from 1966 to 9 March 2023;<ref name="scotsman-2023">{{cite news|last1=Johnson|first1=Sam|title=Final set of stamps with late Queen Elizabeth II's head issued by Royal Mail features Flying Scotsman train|url=https://www.scotsman.com/read-this/final-set-of-stamps-late-queen-elizabeth-ii-royal-mail-flying-scotsman-train-4043920|access-date=11 April 2023|work=The Scotsman|publisher=National World|date=28 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230301072443/https://www.scotsman.com/read-this/final-set-of-stamps-late-queen-elizabeth-ii-royal-mail-flying-scotsman-train-4043920|archive-date=1 March 2023|location=Edinburgh|language=en-gb}}</ref> the original effigy was also used for [[Maundy money]] until the Queen's death in 2022.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{s-start}} {{succession box | before=[[Thomas Humphrey Paget]] | title=[[Coins of the pound sterling]]<br>Obverse sculptor | years=1952 | after=[[Arnold Machin]] }} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gillick, Mary}} [[Category:1881 births]] [[Category:1961 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century British sculptors]] [[Category:20th-century English women artists]] [[Category:Alumni of Nottingham School of Art]] [[Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Art]] [[Category:Artists from Nottingham]] [[Category:British coin designers]] [[Category:British currency designers]] [[Category:English women sculptors]] [[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]] [[Category:British graphic designers]] [[Category:British women graphic designers]] [[Category:20th-century British women sculptors]]